It is declared to be the policy of the State of North Carolina to promote the efficient production and utilization of the products of the soil as essential to the health and welfare of our people and to promote a sound and prosperous agriculture and rural life as indispensable to the maintenance of maximum prosperity. For the attainment of these objectives the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the School of Agriculture of North Carolina College and each and every other department and agency of the State of North Carolina is hereby empowered to cooperate with the Agricultural Extension Service and the committees authorized by this Article to provide: Development of new and improved methods of production, marketing, distribution, processing and utilization of plant and animal commodities at all stages from the original producer through to the ultimate consumer; development of present, new, and extended uses and markets for agricultural commodities and by-products as food or in commerce, manufacture or trade; introduction and breeding of new and useful agricultural crops, plants and animals, particularly those plants and crops which may be adapted to utilization in chemical and manufacturing industries; research, counsel and advice on new and more profitable uses of our resources of agricultural manpower, soils, plants, animals and equipment than those to which they are now devoted; methods of conservation, development, and use of land, forest, and water resources for agricultural purposes; guidance in the design, development, and more efficient and satisfactory use of farm buildings, farm homes, farm machinery, including the application of electricity, water and other forms of power; techniques relating to the diversification of farm enterprises, both as to the type of commodities produced, and as to the types of operations performed, on the individual farm; and assistance in appraising opportunities for making fuller use of the natural, human and community resources in the various counties of this State to the end that the income and level of living of rural people be increased. (1959, c. 1177, s. 4; 1997-261, s. 109; 1997-443, s. 11A.118(a).)